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Why Paula Patton Is Our Girl of the Month

Her career’s on fire. Her husband’s everywhere. Actress Paula Patton, it’s clear, has arrived. It started with her turn in the fourth Mission: Impossible as an agent who can kick ass and rock a ball gown. Then her husband, Robin Thicke—get this, they were high school sweethearts—crafted a song we’re still humming, “Blurred Lines.” (The video is stocked with nearly naked models, but in real life all that Thicke wants to talk about is how hot he is for his gorgeous wife.) Now Patton has a new movie, the romantic comedy Baggage Claim, in which the 37-year-old plays a flight attendant still looking for love. (Don’t feel too bad for her, though, because her search involves Taye Diggs and Djimon Hounsou.) We grabbed some time with Patton to discuss Hollywood style, first-kiss magic—and how many of her guy’s sexy lyrics are really true.

PAULA PATTON: I would really love to be a sixties movie star like Sophia Loren or Brigitte Bardot but with a bohemian twist—I have a little bit of hippie in me. I was the kid who would go climb trees in a dress.

GLAMOUR: How do you deal with the pressure to look a certain way?

PAULA PATTON: I’m an extremist. Either I’m being healthy and organic, or I want a big, juicy In-N-Out burger, you know? And I want it now! It’s certainly not gonna make me a runway model, but it sure makes me happy.

GLAMOUR: You met Robin as a teenager. Do you remember your first kiss?

PAULA PATTON: He sang Jodeci’s “Forever My Lady” to me. He did a full-out R&B onstage performance in his dad’s living room. Then he kissed me. It worked!

GLAMOUR: You guys still seem very passionate. He did say in an interview that he turned you into a bad girl.

PAULA PATTON: He ruined me! Gosh, I hope I’m still a good girl and a bad girl at the same time. And I think that every girl should know the bad girl inside her—and that doesn’t make her bad, you know?

GLAMOUR: So in the “Blurred Lines” video, there’s that balloon message—“Robin Thicke has a big d-ck”

PAULA PATTON: It’s cool, it’s funny, it’s awesome!

GLAMOUR: Yes, it’s definitely all of those things. But we have to ask: Is it accurate?

PAULA PATTON: Robin’s like, “Listen, if I’m, you know, in the Miami Heat’s locker room, I don’t know where I stand, but. ” But I think that the statement is fairly accurate!—Jade Chang

Pick up a copy of the November issue of Glamour on newsstands October 8, or download the digital edition now at glamour.com/app.